Ugo Rebellion of 1176

The Ugo Rebellion of 1176 was a peasant uprising in Ugo Province in the north of Japan's island of Honshu, caused by a failure to produce enough crops to feed the whole population. The Kubota Fujiwara daimyo Fujiwara Motofusa lost his general Konoe Tsunemoto when rebel commander Hara Shigeuji captured the capital of Kubota, but the Fujiwara recaptured the city soon after and decisively defeated the rebels.

Background
The Kubota Fujiwara were a fading horse along with the rest of the formerly-esteemed Fujiwara clan of Dewa Province. In control of Ugo and Uzen Provinces, the Kubota Fujiwara were weakened by drought and the inability to provide rice for most of the population. Peasant leader Yasuda Harutada and his right-hand man Hara Shigeuji organized a series of riots, and the Fujiwara tried in vain to accost for the people of Ugo Province. The Peasants of Ugo rebelled against the Kubota Fujiwara, led in battle by Yasuda.

War
The rebels lost their commander early in the war, as he died of natural causes. However, their commander Hara Shigeuji captured Kubota from Commissioner for Warfare Konoe Tsunemoto's small garrison after some light resistance. With his magistrate dead, Fujiwara Motofusa relocated his base to Uzen Province but prepared to counterattack.

With the gates of Kubota unrepaired and still open, Motofusa invaded Ugo Province in spring of 1177. His army of 8,580 troops besieged Kubota Castle, held by 5,310 rebels under Hara Shigeuji. 1390 Fujiwara were slain in the assault on the castle, but the city fell and Ugo Province was recaptured by the Fujiwara government officials. A total of 10,500 Ugo Peasants and 5,740 Fujiwara soldiers were killed in the uprising in Ugo.